First Round of Full Tilt Payments Sent Last Friday

Thursday, March 6th, 2014 by Ryan

The news that we were all waiting for, was that the payments from Black Friday to the Full Tilt poker players in the United States had officially been sent out and were hitting bank accounts. There was probably a massive group of smiles that happened when players in the United States saw their money show up in their bank accounts this past Friday. This was the first round of payouts to the old Full Tilt Poker customers that the United States Department of Justice had made. The money had been locked up since Black Friday, but we’re now past that time, and they are working on getting everyone paid out.

The Garden City Group (GCG), who is the group handling the Full Tilt Poker payouts as their Claims Administrator, made a statement that we saw a massive number of players get paid. In total, the reports were that 27,500 players were getting paid out around $76 million this past week on the 28th of February. Payments were all sent through the electronic funds transfer that we had spoken about before, and that were set up through the players’ petitions that were submitted to the GCG. They continued on in their statement that anyone who had refunds coming, should have seen the money show up in their bank accounts this past Friday, but it did depend on the financial institution that they used, so there was a chance that it may not be received for a few business days. Obviously knowing what you’re looking for as a player is big, and it was reported that the refunds were going to say something like “DOJ POKERSTARS POKERPAY01.”

If you didn’t get paid out in this round, then it just means that the valid information hadn’t been processed by the correct time, but that there will be another round of transfers coming soon to go to those players. It mainly included the people who had incorrect or incomplete bank information. If you are one of these people then you can look for an email from the GCG telling how you to fix the claim. Those who have the right information by the 13th of this month, then you will get put into the next round of refunds.

Another group of players that was mentioned, are the players who could be eligible for a refund, but who owe some type of a debt, such as unpaid taxes to the government. If you are one of these players, then you are still going to be able to get your funds, but that money will be used to pay off the debt through the Treasury Offset Program. Players would have to transfer a specific form, called the Unified Financial Management System Vendor Request Form for the information to be processed in the right way.

Now, obviously this was an incredibly long process that was very annoying to many, as everyone wanted their money and wanted it fast. It took some time, but the good news is that it has finally happened, and that even if you were a player who had a small amount locked up, or a huge amount of your bankroll, you are going to get your money back to continue playing poker if you choose to. For any player who did have money locked up though, it’s good that this will help them continue their careers, and I’m sure help out quite a bit in terms of any financial burdens that this placed on them.

We do not have an exact date of when the second round of payments are going to be sent out, but once we get that information we’ll be sure to pass it along. Just make sure that if you are one of the people who need to fix something with your bank account or fix anything else that needs to be done that you’ve done so before March 13th so that you can get your money as quickly as possible. There’s no reason to keep the money held up! This story definitely hasn’t come to a close just yet, so any additional information that is released about the payouts to United States players, or just poker in the United States all together we will get to you as quickly as possible!